An Indoor Play Activity
Cryptograms are coded messages. Here’s a simple one based on letter substitution.
Materials Required:
- Paper
- Pencil
Instructions:
Cryptograms are coded messages. Here’s a simple one based on letter substitution.
All you do is select a new letter to represent every letter of the alphabet. Your
master sheet might look like this:
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
CEKPADJQUVIMLRWXNHBSYZOTGF
Using this key, the word “dictionary” would transcribe to “puksuwrchg.” (Don’t try pronouncing it.)
What can kids do with the key?
Operatives can send secret messages to each other. (”Meet me in the living room at five o’clock for ice cream.”)
Ace cryptographers can try to crack the code.
You need to supply them with a fairly long message for this task; finding a solution depends on determining how frequently common letters come up, then making guesses at the remaining blanks.
Here is a list, in descending order, of the most commonly used letters in the English language.
ETAONRISH
Even with this aid, cracking the cryptogram is likely to prove pretty challenging the first time around.
Help out by passing along a couple of clues for less common letters: “C equals K and L equals M in this message.”
This Childrens Activity is sponsored by Zane Education – the home of online Visual Learning.
